The commercial vegetable crop known as celery is widely used in cooking a variety of dishes and is frequently eaten without cooking, as a light snack. There are a number of varieties of celery crops. Although these crops of the celery family generally share a similar look and flavor, they differ in specific traits such as petiole size, shape, and number, succulence, ribbiness, disease resistance, shelf life, and bolting pattern, among others.
These specific traits make a celery variety more or less appealing from a commercial standpoint. For example, a variety that is disease resistant and has a longer shelf life is likely to be more commercially valuable than a variety that is susceptible to diseases or has a short shelf life. Also, since the parts of a celery plant that are most commonly consumed are the petioles (or the “stalks”), a variety that produces more petioles is likely to be more desirable than a variety that produces fewer petioles.
While the pursuit to produce a celery variety that is more appealing for farmers and stores is on-going, it is important that the new varieties retain the flavor, texture, and nutritional properties of the parent plant that is desired by consumers. Thus, search continues for a celery variety that is appealing for consumption while presenting economic advantages to farmers and stores.